The New York Times Spelling Bee never fails to keep players engaged, and today’s hive was a solid mix of challenge and fun. The puzzle featured C as the center letter, with the surrounding letters E, O, L, U, F, N. At first glance, the combination looked heavy on consonants, but once the shorter words started falling into place, the big reveal came with today’s pangram: FLOUNCE.

Step 1: Starting From the Center

Every Spelling Bee puzzle begins with the requirement that all words must use the center letter—in today’s case, C. I kicked things off by testing common vowel-consonant pairings. Very quickly, words like con, cue, can, eco, and ice surfaced. These simple finds helped build rhythm and pointed me toward possible patterns.

Step 2: Finding the Short Words

The next step was collecting all the smaller entries to form a foundation. Today’s hive had plenty of three- and four-letter possibilities:

• con, cue, can, fun, one, ion, elf, flu

• Moving up: once, cone, clue, fuel, lace, face, nice

These small words don’t always rack up points, but they are essential stepping stones for spotting the longer ones.

Step 3: Noticing Clusters and Patterns

The hive’s mix of vowels O, E, U gave me room to experiment with clusters. Some obvious ones included:

• flu- starter: flu, flue, flun… leading toward longer options.

• -ce endings: lace, face, once, nice.

• cl- starter: clue, clone, clou.

It was when I leaned into the “flu-” cluster that the puzzle began to open up more dramatically.

Step 4: The Pangram Discovery – FLOUNCE

The breakthrough came when I joined FLU + ON + CE. Out popped FLOUNCE, the perfect pangram.

It’s such a satisfying word—meaning to move with exaggerated motions, often dramatically. It fit the hive’s flow perfectly, used nearly every letter, and carried the kind of flair Spelling Bee pangrams are known for.

Step 5: Expanding the Word List

Once the pangram was found, I systematically worked back through the hive to uncover additional words. Here’s a breakdown of what I gathered:

Word List

4-letter words:

• once
• cone
• clue
• fuel
• lace
• face
• nice
• foci
• coal
• cell
• cool
• loco

• uncle
• ounce
• focus
• cello
• clone
• colon
• fence
• nonce
• fence
• nonce
• locus

• cocoon

• coffee

• coulee

• fleece

• neocon

• uncool
• uncuff

• Pangram: flounce
• cellule
• colleen
• colonel
• confluence
• nucleon

(Note: As always, the NYT word list may vary, since it has its own rules for what counts as playable words.)

Step 6: Lessons From Today’s Puzzle

The challenge today was recognizing that the hive leaned heavily toward vowel-consonant blending. Without multiple vowels, you might have gotten stuck recycling short entries like con and cue. But by chasing flu- and -ce endings, longer words naturally appeared.

The pangram FLOUNCE stood out not only for its length but also for its whimsical meaning. It’s a reminder that Spelling Bee rewards curiosity and experimentation—you often need to test odd combinations to uncover the gem.

Puzzle Reflections

September 16, 2025, was a rewarding day in the Spelling Bee. From easy starters like con and fun to the dramatic pangram FLOUNCE, the hive offered a little bit of everything. It challenged solvers to stretch beyond the basics, look for unusual blends, and enjoy the journey toward Genius.

If you missed the pangram today, don’t worry. Each puzzle is another chance to grow sharper, and tomorrow’s hive will bring new possibilities.